Oliver, Hamlin and Rey make NCAA Division I Semifinals

Robert Hamlin made history on Friday. The Lehigh sophomore and the No. 2 seed at 184 pounds for the 2011 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships earned a literally hard-fought quarterfinal bout over Oklahoma State’s Chris Perry to make a Friday night semifinal date with frequent rival Steve Bosak, the No. 3 seed from Cornell. By winning in the quarterfinals, he guaranteed himself no worse than a sixth place finish. The Top eight wrestlers earn All-American status, and Hamlin cemented his

place in Vermont folklore by becoming the first Vermont native to earn All-American status in NCAA Division I history. “It feels awesome,” he said before talking about upcoming wrestlers from Vermont. “It’s nothing yet. I’d like to set the bar as high as I can.” Hamlin is one of three area wrestlers to earn a berth in Thursday’s 7 p.m. semifinals. Easton’s Jordan Oliver, the top seed at 133 for Oklahoma State, and Lehigh’s Zach Rey, the top seed at 285, both made the semifinals. Oliver scored a major decision over Mike Grey of Cornell, and Rey won by injury default over Penn State’s Cameron Wade in the second period. Wade injured his left knee late in the first period and tried to continue, but after a Rey takedown in the second period, Penn State coach Cael Sanderson signaled that was enough. In Hamlin’s bout, Perry kept shooting in low on his ankle, but Hamlin used it to his advantage in the opening period for his patented switch and a takedown about two minutes into the action. He had to cut the dangerous Perry loose, however, and gave up an escape at the start of the second period that tied the score at 2. Perry got away with a choke hold at the start of the third period, got away with grabbing Hamlin’s headgear to stay on top, and after the Lehigh wrestler did escape, head-butted him out of bounds, all illegal cheap shots that went unpenalized. The referee finally called a second out of bounds head butt with 12 seconds left for a penalty point. With three seconds left, Perry launched a right uppercut into Hamlin’s face that again went unpenalized, but was more happy with the 3-2 win. “He was too interested in trying to hurt me and not interested enough in scoring,” said Hamlin, who had two nasty red bruises on his forehead and just over his eyebrow, and who was bleeding from his mouth. “Just 12 seconds left, I’m not going to retaliate, I’m not going to do anything stupid,” the engineering major said. “It just helps me because I know I’m in his head. I’ve been wrestling a long time, and when I was younger, I used to get mad in matches, and I found out it made me wrestle poorly.”

Winning in the quarters guarantees not only an All-American finish, but no less than sixth place. For the first time at these national championships, Oliver went beyond the second period. He recored a pair of pins in his opening bouts on Thursday, but Cornell’s Mike Grey, a former Lehigh recruit who briefly enrolled and then transferred, refused to get turned in the opening period after Oliver scored a takedown 1:10 into the bout. Grey choose neutral to start the second period and got on his bicycle. Oliver chose defense to start the third. Grey cut him loose and Oliver immediately converted an ankle pick for a takedown, but found the red-clad wrestler difficult to turn, so he cut him loose for an escape. Oliver added another takedown on a cover, then immediately cut Grey, who kept backing away from the undefeated wrestler. He added a buzzer-beating takedown, and the riding time gave him 10-2 major. “I kind of got a little lazy in that match,” Oliver chided. “I wasn’t moving my feet as much. I picked it up at the win and got the major … Two pins and a major, not bad.” Oliver said he’s going ot relax and keep off his feet until this evening’s semifinals that begin at 7 p.m., and had no idea who his opponent, nor did he care. “I’ve just got to go out and treat it as if I was wrestling the No. 2 guy, or wrestling myself. Give it my best.” Oliver is wrestling No. 4 seed Tyler Graff of Wisconsin. In the opening consolation round Friday morning, Zack Kemmerer, the University of Pennsylvania junior from Upper Perkiomen, used a third-period reverse to edge Army’s Casey Thome 6-4 at 141. Also at 141, Lehigh’s Stephen Dutton scored a takedown in the final 7 seconds to edge Virginia’s Nick Nelson 11-8. Brandon Hatchett, Lehigh’s unseeded 165-pound junior, knocked off No. 12 seed Cody Yohn of Minnesota in the consolations.

ELIMINATION TIME: Lehigh 149-pound sophomore was eliminated in the morning consolations with a 7-3 loss to Ivan Lopouchanski of North Carolina – Greensboro. Maryland’s Kyle John, a 157-pounder. Dropped a 7-5 decision to No. 5 seed Jesse Dong of Virginia Tech and was eliminated. Ben Clymer, a junior at Hofstra from Northwestern Lehigh, was eliminated when he gave up an escape in ultimate tiebreaker against Navy’s Luke Rebertus, although both wrestlers appeared clearly out of bounds at the time.

AND: Add former Quakertown wrestling star John Hangey to the list of area wrestling coaches at the Division I level. Hangey is an assistant at Rider.